11 Essential Features of Embedded Analytics Software in 2021

August 12, 2021

When it comes to embedded analytics software, the question isn’t whether or not you should embed BI into your application, it’s when. But what is embedded analytics?

In the last two decades, the potential of data analytics has ushered in an extensive and diverse market for BI solutions. Even as the move towards more user-centric platforms becomes the favored option, many companies are still using traditional BI solutions that do not have the capabilities that embedded analytics can provide. Let’s look at some issues those companies are facing and how the features of embedded analytics solutions can solve for those problems.

Problems with traditional BI platforms:

1. It’s complex – Appropriate only for the technically minded, traditional analyst platforms require extensive knowledge usually limited to what’s called “data scientists.” With low user adoption, data discovery remains limited.
2. It’s expensive – Traditional platforms often require additional infrastructure like distinct servers in order to run the analytics software. And it often takes months or even years to implement, costing time and money.
3. It’s immobile – Many traditional platforms are not fully mobile or cloud-compatible. Moving data across a multitude of devices is crucial for real-time data sharing.

The future is self-service, data discovery, and quick actionable insights. Empowering, not inhibiting, the user is the mission of technology and software today. As this trend grows across industries, certain functionalities are becoming not only desired but expected. For embedded analytics solutions, there are a number of functions that users and businesses have come to expect.

What is Embedded Analytics Used For?

• Deliver reports and dashboards to a variety of end users
• Enable users to view, edit, or create KPI dashboards and reports
• Eliminate data silos by connecting different data sources for analysis
• Embedding analytics on web pages and external portals
• Reducing IT overhead by empowering users with self-service capabilities
• Improving the value of your application

Embedded Analytics Platform vs Business Intelligence – What are the defining features?

Business Intelligence and embedded analytics aim to meet the same need, but what is the difference between these approaches?

To put it simply, Business Intelligence refers to a range of technologies and processes that involve the collation of business data from several sources for reporting and analysis. Traditionally, Business Intelligence software is often a separate tool – forcing the end user to switch between applications for reporting and analysis.

1.   Self-Service functionality

IT burden is a concern with traditional BI systems, especially in larger organizations. Generally, only IT users with experience were given access to operate such complex systems.

Fortunately, self-service analytics offers a solution to this problem, offering access to these features by democratizing access across the business and varying user levels. This is achieved through simple, user-friendly interfaces that are tailored to different experiences and skill levels for different users.

If you have a diverse range of users who will need to use your analytics platform effectively, without pushing tasks onto the IT department, it’s important to find a self-service solution that empowers your users and gives them the tools they need for success.

2.   Integrated security

Organizations rely on their data to provide insights, but security is of utmost importance to protecting the value of that data. A platform that is designed for embedded analytics should seamlessly integrate with an existing security implementation for ease of access and ease of use.

So be smart about your data security. Embedded analytics should have a flexible mechanism for configuring user authorization that allows integration of report security features in almost any environment.

For organizations with a large user-base – all with diverse needs and requirements – it’s essential that embedded analytics allows for more granular control, down to the individual report element level, controlling what portions of reports can be seen.

3.   Customization

Your embedded analytics solution should work for you, not the other way around. But there are many solutions on the market today that aren’t customizable to any meaningful extent. These plug-and-play solutions are great for smaller businesses that require something quick and simple out-of-the-box. In other words, they’re short-term solutions, ideal for a small set of users that need basic dashboards and a few reports. But for enterprises, they’re limiting and risky.

Embedded analytics should offer end-to-end configuration so you can craft an analytics experience that fits and empowers your users. That means configurable dashboard and report designers for both simple and advanced users, report templates with pre-selected data sources, objects and columns with business-relevant terminology, and more.

The best embedded analytics solutions also offer granular user permissions and access rights. This makes it easy to ensure that each user only sees what they need to.

4.   Mobile Experience

Now more than ever, businesses are no longer centralized. Many organizations spread their network across different users on a national, international or global network, all of which may need access to the embedded analytics software. As a result, the ability to access business-critical reports, analyses and dashboards is a highly desirable feature for embedded analytics software.

With remote working on the rise, multi-device access to business-critical tools has never been more important. Business applications need to be adapted for different devices to allow access to global users. Your embedded analytics software needs to be mobile-friendly and accessible to anyone within this network with an internet connection, while still providing the full range of tools, capabilities, and security.

5.   Data visualizations

Graphical representations and data visualizations allow users to see and digest massive amounts of data in cohesive, clear ways, giving them the tools they need to make sound decisions. Because it’s faster and easier to interpret and analyze information in the format, confident decision-making can be done in a timely manner.

Since most people are visual learners, opting for an embedded analytics software with a robust visualization library is key to empowering users to communicate complex information in a simple way.

6.   Interactive dashboards & reports

The beauty of embedded analytics is that with each insight you uncover, a new question is formed. The only way to answer the next question is to dig deeper into the data.

With interactive reports and dashboards, users can drill down into a visualization, apply any relevant filters, and more to help uncover the root of the insight. By delivering interactivity to end users, you can promote a culture of data driven discovery and allow your users to feel like their data is truly in their hands

7.   Integrations & Data Sources

The best software is the one that requires the least amount of work for the highest amount of value. When looking at different embedded analytics platforms, it’s best to evaluate those that are both compatible with your existing data environment and flexible enough to meet future data demands.

Similarly, it’s likely that the business data you want to leverage into reports and dashboards exists across many different locations and platforms. Your embedded analytics platform should enable cross-database reporting as well as allow for REST API connection to various data sources and web services. With a high-level of data flexibility, you can help eliminate data silos within your organization while delivering a more robust analytics experience for your end users.

8.   White label embedded analytics

With an analytics platform, white labeling refers to a third-party data analytics solution that has been customized to seamlessly match the look and feel of the native application.

Without white labeling, users face a kind of disjointed experience when forced to navigate to a different portal to access analytics for their application. In a white-labeled product, analytics would be seamlessly integrated with the interface users know and understand. A better user experience ultimately improves software adoption rates.

Similarly, white labeling is a way for software vendors to keep their brand in front of users, instead of displaying a third party’s watermark or logo inside their product. This too is an important way to retain customers in today’s competitive software market.

9.   Promotes Collaboration

Most organizations implementing embedded analytics software will have a handful of people on staff interacting with the platform. Software featuring multi-user capabilities and specialized employee classification access allows for expansive collaboration at maximum ease. This collaborative capability within your embedded analytics software is a major way to make a big impact on overall operational success.

When researching embedded analytics software, pay close attention to the software’s exporting capabilities. Many modern embedded solutions allow for exporting reports and dashboards into commonly used formats such as PDF, XLS, DOCX, and more.

With these software features, all relevant users are able to interact with the interface and gain access to endless analytic insights and foster greater intelligence across all departments.

10.   Customer and technical support

Any embedded analytics software has an important job to do – consistently provide clients with effective solutions to their problems. Your software vendor should be reliable and genuinely invested in the success of your organization.

In addition to this, the platform providers should deliver issue notifications and identify discrepancies. Frequent upgrades that correct recurring issues and improve performance are important as well, especially if these features are able to anticipate and adapt to the demands of the customer.

In addition to technical support, your embedded analytics software vendor should deliver great customer support. Regardless of how easy the software is to use, customers still prefer vendors with reliable customer service. Assistance with data interpretation and data analysis in regard to past performance can help a business make better use of the system and ensure the capabilities are being used to their full potential. The right vendor should offer interactive training and demonstrations. This not only leads to more confidence in using the system, but it also gives customers an idea of whether the system will work for their particular needs.

11. Designed for growth

As an enterprise organization, you must be adept at adapting to the ever-evolving business landscape. New technologies and trends emerge at an accelerated pace. Now, more than ever, it’s critical that your business software be able to keep up.

Many enterprises are experiencing this pain point now with cloud migration. Those businesses still on traditional BI platforms are realizing the challenge (and cost) of moving their existing solution to the cloud. Unfortunately, many BI tools have been retro-fitted to be cloud compatible. This is not ideal.

The best analytics platform should be purpose-built to be deployed in cloud, on-prem, multi-tenant and hybrid environments. And due to their embedded architecture, solutions like Logi Analytics can scale alongside your business as it changes and grows.

Self-Service Embedded Analytics with Logi Analytics

When it comes to embedded analytics, there’s no one-size-fits-all platform. The best embedded analytics platform is the one that best fits your use case. For software companies looking to deliver self-service BI to their end users, be sure to devote the necessary time and staff into the evaluation and POC process.

Logi Analytics’ self-service BI platform delivers the embeddability, customization, and integration most modern software companies are looking for in an embedded platform. With an in-depth evaluation process and unparalleled support, Logi Analytics helps organizations around the world realize their data-potential.

For a best-in-class embedded analytics platform, Logi Analytics delivers a modern embedded solution that empowers both your end users and developers. Reach out today to schedule your demo.